The present invention relates to an on-line guidance system for guiding to a position on a patient's body, where an operation will be performed. One particular use of the guidance system is to display a position in a patient's brain where an operation should be performed. The display is made, for example, on a cathode-ray tube.
Recent developments in diagnostic procedures in neurosurgery enable the exact position of an affected part to be displayed by an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or CT (computer tomography) technology.
One problem in neurosurgical operations involves difficulty in finding out the exact positions of neoplasmas which are shown on tomographical images.
During an on-going neurosurgical procedure, even for well trained neurosurgeons, it is time-consuming work to find the exact position in the brain that corresponds to the MRI or CT images. Also, there is a problem that damage to normal tissues can occur during uncertain searching procedures.